Robert came to Galveston to fulfill his promise to a dying man and look after his widow. He didn’t expect to find love in the unlikeliest of places.

Robert Truax, former Second Lieutenant and Confederate officer in the Civil War, made a promise to his comrade Phillip Markham. If anything happened to Phillip, Robert would look after his beloved wife, Miranda. She was his life, his world, his everything.

After the war, Robert is left to pick up the pieces and fulfill his pact. When he arrives at Miranda’s home in Galveston, Texas, things are worse than he imagined. Phillip’s name has been dragged through the mud, everyone in town believes him to be a traitor, and his widow is treated as an outcast. Even more disturbing is her emotional well-being. Miranda seems hopeless, lost, and so very alone.

Robert had thought his duty would be simple. He would help Miranda as quickly as possible in order to honor a promise. But the moment Robert laid eyes on her, his plans changed. He’s mesmerized by her beauty and yearns to help her in any way he can.
He makes it his duty to protect Miranda, turn her reputation around, and to find some way to help her smile again. But it doesn’t prove to be an easy task—Robert knows something about Phillip that could shake Miranda to the core and alter her view of the man she thought she knew so well.

Shelley Shepard Gray is a New York Times and USA Todaybestselling author, a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers prestigious Carol Award, and a two-time HOLT Medallion winner. She lives in southern Ohio, where she writes full-time, bakes too much, and can often be found walking her dachshunds on her town’s bike trail.

Book Review: Shelley writes a well constructed and intriguing story. Yes, there is a bit of a love story in this book, however it is not your usual plot of struggle between two characters who finally fall in love. This story touches on the lasting effects of war, cruelty of man, and the saving grace of friendship.

Miranda is struggling after the Civil War with a loss of a husband, little income, depression…hopelessness, and the threat of losing her home and only source of income. The town’s people treat her with contempt and hostility which almost causes her to end her life. This book shows how mass cruelty (bullying) can bring one to their knees.

There is a bit of a mystery in this story which keeps the pages turning…trying to discern the what/who. There is much more to this story than a love affair. It shows much of humanities good and bad qualities.